Like you, I fear the unknown.
Some of you are paralyzed by that fear. We are like a child who has never eaten something, but who absolutely refuses to try it, because he is convinced that it will taste bad. The realm of the unknown is a fertile patch for the growth of phobias. When those frights come to maturity they shackle us to our little place, where we live in the foolish illusion that everything will be all-right as long as I don't. . . .
The problem is, as I pointed out yesterday, that controlling fear is probably preventing us from engaging in some act of love. I've known folk who didn't go to see loved ones, because they feared going out of their house. I've talked to strong men who wanted to go and comfort a friend in their time of loss, but who "couldn't" because the tentacles of fear--"I don't do funeral homes"--had such a strong grip on them. I could go on, but it would be better for you to come up with your own examples of love being crowded out by terror.
I think Benaiah loved his King and his people. As he looked down into that pit on a snowy day, at that killer-beast that threatened those he loved, the fear that any sensible man would have must have made the hair on his neck stand up. Likely what you fear is not as spectacular as the king of beasts, but it is every bit as real, and it is just as important that you deal decisively with it.
How do I deal with fear of the unknown?
By holding more tightly to what I do know.
Here are some knowns that help me deal with the unknowns that lurk in my path:
(My thoughts were encouraged by Chapter 6 in the book The Hard Corps, by Dai Hankey.)
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